A romp through the archives
TWO MONTHS OF EXHIBITIONS and performances celebrate 40 years of feminist art and notable artists in Montreal
The feminist artist-run centre now known as La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse is celebrating its 40th anniversary with two months of exhibitions and performances at its storefront gallery on Saint-Laurent Blvd.
Archives cannibales, as the title of its current exhibition implies, is a romp through the archives of an organization that started in a Greene Ave. apartment in 1973 as Powerhouse, and was incorporated on May 24, 1974, as Galerie et atelier la Centrale Électrique / Powerhouse Gallery & Studio.
The founders sought a place for women to exhibit their work in a Montreal art milieu that was generally closed to women, said Jen Leigh Fisher, La Centrale’s artistic co-ordinator.
Women were up against the myth of the “male genius,” Fisher said. “They wanted to undermine the idea of the masterful artist, which people still want to buy into.” They also wanted to pay homage to the women whose unsigned “craftwork” in textiles wasn’t recognized as art, she said.
La Centrale’s next exhibition, which opens April 25, investigates the craft heritage. Loom Music by Wednesday Lupypciw is a video that tells the history of Alberta’s weaving guild. Héritage, by Montreal-based jenna dawn maclellan, “celebrates the ingenuity of the handmade” in Quebec, writes the artist whose project began as a mobile weaving studio on the streets of downtown Montreal.
Archives Cannibales, the current exhibition, like much of contemporary art, requires the viewer’s attention — but unfortunately doesn’t compel it. It came alive for me in discussions with the artists, but a thoughtful text on the wall or in a handout could accomplish the same thing.
Some help in situating the artwork is needed because the exhibition is interesting and the ideas expressed by the artists continue a trend in the art world toward what curator Cynthia Girard calls “visual intelligence.”
Girard chose six artists and built a scaffolding to accom- modate whatever the artists decided to make following their searches through La Centrale’s archives. There are small installations, a video monitor and twodimensional works.
Girard’s own work was a collage on Guatemala made from posters and leaflets made by La Centrale members during the years of U.S.supported military dictatorships in Latin America.
The “real issues” that female artists addressed in the 1970s were something that struck Girard. Many shows are now about archives and documents, she said. “Art talking about art. I find it very sterile.”
“We’ re colonized by theory,” Girard said.
“I still believe in making things.”
Natasha Rock quit filmmaking for the more visceral work of ceramics. Her piece uses the scaffolding to group a mass of ceramic figures, some caught in the act of dropping to the floor and others descending from above.
“Artists get too involved with applying for grants and exhibitions, and not just making art for art’s sake,” Rock said. “Too many artists get depressed when they can’t get shows. Art should be fun.”
The women who got depressed in the 1970s founded La Centrale. It seems many of their goals have been achieved, so is feminism still relevant?
Anybody who says the feminist struggle is over is repudiating reality, Fisher said. The gains made by women since the 1970s are precarious.
It’s easy for middle-class women to believe that gender is no longer an issue, but class and race continue to define the “other,” she said.
And in the background, the message from right-wing media is constant: feminists are angry, unattractive women who hate men.
In a review in the current issue of Border Crossings of Art Cities of the Future: 21stcentury Avant-Gardes, Robin Laurence counts 65 men and 27 women on the list of avantgarde stars. Woman only equal men on the lists from Delhi and Istanbul.
La Centrale is interested in experimental art and the development of emerging artists, Fisher said. Juries of artists decide funding for exhibitions. “We don’t prioritize and we have a non-hierarchal structure,” she said. “We all clean the floors on a rotating basis.”
“Young artists can always find a welcome here,” Girard said. “La Centrale is always open and welcoming.”
Archives Cannibales continues to April 12, and is followed by exhibitions and performances until May 30 that mark the 40th anniversary of La Centrale, 4296 Saint-Laurent Blvd. Information: lacentrale.org.
The Belgo building is always a one-stop destina
tion for the art lover. Here are three of the gems I found on an afternoon tour.
Colleen Heslin, national winner of the 2013 RBC painting competition, is showing her latest collages of tie-dyed fabrics at Galerie Laroche/ Joncas.
She sews pieces of fabric together to make abstract works that resemble tonal photographs.
The artist Christian Knudsen curated Nature for Nicolas Robert’s gallery, a selection of photographs by Gabor Szilasi, Robert Walker and Martin Schop.
Robert described how Schop goes into the wilderness for days with a pinhole camera and waits patiently for the right moment. The pinhole camera is the antithesis of the digital camera, as the photographer needs a light-tight bag to load and unload the exposed images one at a time.
The pinhole photograph is characterized by an overall soft focus that causes the images to glow — everything is in focus, but nothing is sharp.
At Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, Marisa Portolese shows portraits of women who look directly into the camera with such self-assurance that their beauty leaves the sex icons of the media world in the dust. The contrast with conventional depictions of female beauty is most blatant in Rita, where Portolese poses a real woman — who exudes sensuality — below an image of an idealized one.
Colleen Heslin: Ballads from the North Sea continues until April 26 at Galerie Laroche/Joncas, espace 410, 372 Sainte-Catherine St. W. Information: larochejoncas.com.
Marisa Portolese: Belle de Jour II continues until April 12 at Galerie Lilian Rodriguez, espace 405, 372 SainteCatherine St. W. Information: galerielilianrodriguez.com.
Nature continues to April 12 at Galerie Nicolas Robert, espace 524, 372 Sainte-Catherine St. W. Information: galerienicolasrobert.com and martinschop.com.